Earthen fence



(No Model.)

A. DELFFS.

BARTHEN FENCE.

Patented 'May 15,1883.

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ARNOLD DELFFS, OF BEDFORD, TENNESSEE.

EARTHEN FENCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 277,687', dated May1.5, 1883.

Application filed December 1, 188:2.

To all whom it may concern Beit known that I, ARNOLD DELFFS, a citizenof the United States, residing at Bedford, in the county of Bedford andState of'lennes see, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Earthen Fences; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to lettersor gures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of thisspecification.

The present invention relates to that class of fences or walls which arecomposed of a body or core of tamped earth and an exterior coat ing ofcement or other hard protecting material.

The object of the invention is to provide a cement or bton coated earthfence which combines cheapnesswith durability of construction, and canbe built with ease and dispatch, so as to be virtually water-proof andnot liable to crack.

To these ends the invention consists in making the fence or wall insections ot' tamped or hard-packed earth coated with cement on thesides, ends, and top, fissures or channels be ing left between' thevarious sections for surface drainage and to guard against the cracking`of the fence by the settling thereof in loose soils.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective viewot' a section-fencebuiltin accordance with.

The letter A designates a body or core of tamped or irmly-packed earthhaving sloping sides and a vflat or arched topin other words, said lcoreor earthen body presents a pyrami- (No model.)

dal shape. It is coated on its sides, top, and

ends with a layer, B,of cement-,btoln asphalt, or other material orcomposition capable of being applied in a plastic state and possessingthe property of hardening by exposure to the air. The fence or wallshown by the figures of the drawings is composed of a series of alignedsections, which are placed so as to leave iissures or channels@ betweenadjoiningsections for providing means i-'or the passage of rainwater andremoving all liability of the cracking ofthe wall by reason ot' thesettling thereof in certain kinds of soil. .A continuons wall of tampedearth coated with cement has heretofore been proposed, but isobjectionable, because it provides no outlet for surface-water, and is,moreover,liable to crack and bulge out from unequal settlin g.

rlhe method of building my improved fence or wall is as follows, viz: Amold or framecomposed of two pyramidal end boards, A2, shittable sideplanks, B2, connected therewitlnand loose strips G2 and D?, placed,respectively, against the side planks and end boards, havingbeen placedupon the surface of the ground, the space within the mold is filled withearth and stones and solidly packed down by asuit able rampingimplement. As shown in Fig. 2, the parts ot' the mold are in thepositions they occupy when building the lowest or base layer or tier ofthe wall. The pyramidal end boards, A2, are provided with eyes orsockets a. on their edges, which receive hooks b or other fasteningdevices on the ends ofthe side planks, B2. These eyes or sockets carearranged along the edges of the boards from the tops to the basesthereof, so as to permit the side planks to be shifted or raised as thework progresses. Loose strips G2, of the same length and height as theside planks, B2, rest against said side planks and serve to form spacesbetween said planks and the sides of the body of earth packed down intothe mold. The loose strips D2, placed against the end boards, conform inshape or size with the pyramidal or sloping shape of said end boards andserve to form spaces between the ends ot' the body of earth and the endboards. After a layer or stratum of earth has-been packed in the moldthe loose sides and end strips, (PD2, are removed,leav

IOO

ing a space around the sides and ends of the body ot' earth, which spaceis then lled with a plastic composition, such as cement, bton, asphalt,or artificial-stone composition. This having been done, the side planksare shifted and raised to the next set of eye or staples, iu order tobring the bot-tom edges ofthe side boards on a level with the top of thcpreceding stratum of earth, as is shown in Fig. 3. The loose side andend strips are then again set in place, shorter end strips correspondingwith the diminished width ot' the pyramidal boards A2 being used, andthe operation of filling in the stratum ot' earth and coating of cementagain takes place, as already described. After a section of the fence orwall has been erected, the mold is shifted and brought in line with theend of said completed section, and the work of building another sectiontakes place in the same manner as with the preceding section. The moldmay be shifted slightly l each time a section is completed, so as toleave of the sections will prevent the bulgingout of the sides thereof,since they act as stays for binding each section into a rm, homogeneousbody. The fissures left bythe boards A2, if desired, maybe filled inwith cement, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, either with or Withoutleaving cross-channels E at the bottom for the drainage or passage ofsurface-Water, in

which case a continuous unbroken cementcovered earth wall is formed,with partitions of cement at regular intervals, which connect or tietogether the cement coatings of the sides. The top of the'wall ispreferably coated with cement, though it may be omitted if the core isot" a character of earth that will allow it.

I reserve the right to file a separate application for patent for themold or devices for building thefence herein shown and described.

Having thus described my invention,WhatI claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is Y 1. A cement-covered earthen fence orwall, made in sections and having vertical fissures or Water-Waysbetween adjoiiiingsections,substantially as herein set forth.

2. An earthen fence or wall made of a series of aligned sections havingtheir sides and ends covered with a hard and rigid. material, as and forthe purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ARNOLD DELFFS.

Witnesses:

JAMES A. WARDER, T. A. MoN'rGoMnRY.

